Cancer

THE TALL BOOK: A Celebration of Life from on High By Arianne Cohen Bloomsbury, 257 pp., illustrated, $20 Do you find airplane seats to be high-tech torture chambers? At cocktail parties, do you stand with your legs spread into a wide V so as not to tower over others? When you were a kid, did everyone expect you to be good at basketball? If the answer to these questions is yes, run out and get this book. As one of the very few people taller than its author, I hereby invoke my rare qualifications to pronounce it just the thing for the millions of Americans above, say, the 95th percentile in height.

More than 500 guests recently attended Gordo's Gala at Lombardo's in Randolph. The event raised more than $150,000 to help the family of Hingham High School senior James Gordon who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.

Michael Eden (center first row flanked by his parents Vicki Bomba and Keith Eden) is now an honorary member of the Bentley College hockey team. By Kyle Mack, Bentley Sports Information Office On Wednesday afternoon after practice, the Bentley hockey team took time from their preparations for the Rochester Institute of Technology this weekend to welcome in a new honorary member of the team: Michael Eden, a 15 year old cancer survivor from Framingham.

GOSHEN, N.Y. - An upstate New York woman who faked having cancer so donors would pay for her wedding and Caribbean honeymoon was sentenced Wednesday to the nearly two months she has already served in jail for duping individuals and businesses out of more than $13,000. Jessica Vega, who apologized in court for the scam, was released later in the day from the county jail where she has been held since April 25. A prosecutor said she has paid back more than $13,368, with nine victims getting checks ranging from $500 to $3,700.

Longtime University of Massachusetts softball coach Elaine Sortino, one of just five active coaches with more than 1,100 career wins, has announced that she is battling cancer. Sortino made the announcement to her team Wednesday following a 4-2 win over Boston College. No additional details were released. Director of Athletics John McCutcheon said the 33-year coach will continue to be as involved as possible with the team, but day-to-day operations will be handled by her assistants.

SEATTLE -- Researcher David Baker believes the key to an AIDS vaccine or a cure for cancer may be that old PC sitting under a layer of dust in your closet or the one on your desk doing little else but running a screen saver. Those outdated or idle computers may be just what Baker needs to turn his ideas into scientific breakthroughs. Baker, 43, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, realized about two years ago that he didn't have access to the computing horsepower needed for his research -- nor the money to buy time on supercomputers elsewhere.

“Access Hollywood’’ personality and Medford native Maria Menounos joined her boyfriend, Keven Undergaro , David Ortiz ’s wife, Tiffany , and Four Seasons GM Bill Taylor at the Run of Hope on Saturday. The 5K Run and 2K Walk, which were hosted by the Four Seasons, raised money for pediatric cancer care and research. Pictured at right is Undergaro, Alexandra Pacher , Menounos, and Dr. Howard Weinstein , unit chief of pediatric oncology at MassGeneral Hospital for Children.

CARACAS - President Hugo Chavez revealed Sunday that a new tumor recently removed from his pelvic area was of the same type of cancer as a baseball-sized growth extracted taken from his body about eight months ago. In his first TV appearance in nine days, Chavez, 57, said the surgery and tests showed the tumor was "a recurrence of the initially diagnosed cancer. " He said "the tumor was totally extracted" and noted "the absence of lesions suggestive of cancer neither locally, neither in nearby organs, neither far away . . . neither metastasis, none of this...

Bill Walsh , the Hall of Fame coach who built an NFL dynasty with the San Francisco 49ers and revolutionized the sport with his West Coast offense, has told friends and colleagues at Stanford University that he has cancer. School officials confirmed yesterday that Walsh, who served as the school's interim athletic director until July, is fighting leukemia. "I'm positive, but not evangelistic," the 74-year-old Walsh told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and The Sports Xchange websites.

Woburn-based ArQule Inc. rallied 12 percent, the most since July 2010. ArQule, a clinical-stage biotechnology company engaged in the research and development of cancer therapeutics, reported that its tivantinib product delayed the progression of cancer in a phase two study of 107 patients. All had liver cancer and had been treated previously. Tivantinib (also known as ARQ 197) is designed to block the activity of a molecule known as c-Met that plays multiple roles in cancer. It is ArQule's lead product.

Sentencing is set for an upstate New York woman who admits she faked having cancer to con donors into paying for her wedding and Caribbean honeymoon. Jessica Vega isn't likely to do prison time, but court officials say she'll have to repay $13,368 to her victims. She's been in Orange County Jail since she pleaded guilty April 25. Vega was living in Montgomery, 60 miles north of New York City, when she launched her scam. In 2010, she said she was dying of leukemia and wanted a "dream wedding" to Michael O'Connell, the father of her baby.

NEW YORK - A simple, cheaper exam of just the lower part of the bowel can cut the risk of developing colon cancer or dying of the disease, a large federal study found. Many doctors recommend a more complete test - colonoscopy - but many people refuse that costly, unpleasant exam. The new study shows that the simpler test, flexible sigmoidoscopy, can be a good option. The study was published online Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the fourth...

Every so often, a hip-hop work comes along and announces, "OK, enough with all the nonsense; this is how it's done. " Veteran underground MC El-P does that with this set of 12 songs overflowing with bile and sonic invention. The former head of the defunct Definitive Jux label produced the set and offers the perfect aural correlative to his blistering verses. Using a mix of industrial effects, droning guitars, ominous keyboards, and rumbling bass, El-P conjures a modern day Bomb Squad sound.

A simple, cheaper exam of just the lower part of the bowel can cut the risk of developing colon cancer or dying of the disease, a large federal study finds. Many doctors recommend a more complete test — colonoscopy — but many people refuse that costly, unpleasant exam. The new study shows that the simpler test, flexible sigmoidoscopy, can be a good option. Although it may seem similar to having a mammogram on just one breast, experts say that even a partial bowel exam is better than none.

With his carefully tended hair, tight trousers and perfect harmonies, Robin Gibb, along with his brothers Maurice and Barry, defined the disco era. As part of the Bee Gees — short for the Brothers Gibb — they created dance floor classics like "Stayin Alive," ''Jive Talkin'," and "Night Fever" that can still get crowds onto a dance floor. The catchy songs, with their falsetto vocals and relentless beat, are familiar pop culture mainstays. There are more than 6,000 cover versions of the Bee Gees hits, and they are still heard on dance...

New lung cancer screening guidelines from three medical groups recommend annual scans but only for an older group of current or former heavy smokers. The advice applies only to those aged 55 to 74. The risks of screening younger or older smokers or nonsmokers outweigh any benefits, according to the guidelines. About 8 million Americans would be eligible for screening under the new criteria, and if all of them got the scans, about 4,000 lung cancer deaths per year could be prevented, said Dr. Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in...

**½ 50/50 Directed by: Jonathan Levine Written by: Will Reiser Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 99 minutes Rated: R (language throughout, sexual content, lots of medicinal weed) If you're feeling charitable, "50/50" may strike you as a brave attempt to broaden a Judd Apatow-style raunchfest to include death and disease along with the usual sex, drugs, and bromance.

Lexington native Ethan Zohn , who won the third season of "Survivor," has confirmed to People magazine that his cancer has returned. Zohn, 37, has battled a rare form of Hodgkin's lymphoma since 2009 but has been in remission for more than a year. Zohn told People that despite the new diagnosis, he's not slowing down. In fact, he says he still plans to run the New York City Marathon this weekend to raise money for his organization Grassroot Soccer.

The fourth annual "Strike Out Colon Cancer" tournament ended the same as last year's. Malden High poured the runs on Madison Park at East Boston Stadium, winning 13-1 in a five-inning game cut short by the mercy rule. Behind junior Austin Teal's third-inning grand slam and junior Nick Powers's 3 for 3 day -- which inlcuded a double, triple, and home run -- Madison Park wasn't able to catch up. Teal was awarded the tournament's MVP award. Golden Tornadoes coach Kevin Carpenito doesn't think his team's season has been based mainly on its hitting, though.

He was the embodiment of one of modern Libya's darkest chapters — a man synonymous with horrifying scenes of wreckage, broken families and a plane that fell out of the sky a generation ago. His name, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was little known compared to the single word that his deeds represented: Lockerbie. Seven months after his patron dictator Moammar Gadhafi was slain in a revolution that began a new chapter for his homeland, al-Megrahi died Sunday of cancer, leaving behind countless unanswered questions about the midair attack in 1988 that blew up Pan Am flight...